Brain at work: spotting half-hidden objects

UW Medicine scientists are discovering ways that the brain operates when figuring out shapes, from those that are completely visible to those that are mostly hidden.

Although computers can beat the world’s best chess players, scientists have not yet designed artificial intelligence that performs as well as the average person in distinguishing shapes that are semi-obscured.

Studies of signals generated by the brain are helping to fill in the picture of what goes on when looking at, then trying to recognize, shapes. Such research is also revealing why attempts have failed to mechanically replicate the ability of humans and primates to identify partially hidden objects.